Did Hope last only 7 months?

At the climate justice march the other day, I was talking to a lady who said that it is a waste to support Obama, that he is the same as all the other corporate politicians. I disagreed and said during the 2008 election, I thought if Hillary had won it would be the same Dem centrist triangulation, but that Obama's young, multi-racial supporters would demand more progressive change, and that when Obama won, it was the signal that the Dean wing (anti-war) had beaten the Kerry wing of the party, something that should have happened in 2004.

Now I'm starting to see lefties get discouraged around (lack of) health care, and I'm surprised at how much media attention these current protesters are getting, while my recent 8 years of protests didn't seem to even cause a blip. What's up with that, "liberal" media?

A few quotes from a HuffPost article and comments show how disgruntled lefties have become:

"(for continuing to support Obama), what will we get in return? If the last six months are any indication, the answer is, "Nothing"...
"Obama is here to tamp down the aspirations of the people. To enact reforms that don't cause any fundamental change. To protect the profits for the big players."...
"warning folks to expect from Obama exactly what we have gotten so far - compromising with right-wing bullies, flip-flopping on most of his campaign promises and turning his back on his progressive base."

(back to my comments again)
I'd hate to be taken in again as naive, I'd like to view myself as more patient to get the change we need to believe in. But I can see people's point that the compromising and waffling and caving in can only go on so long, and at some point, I'd like to see Obama show some strength and twist some arms, and get what he wants. Pull out of Afghanistan, auction 100% of GHG permits, return dividends to consumers, put money towards clean energy, and not corn ethanol handouts to corporate agribusiness (offsets), stop caving in to Wall Street, and get real single-payer health care that is not a sell-out to big-pharma. It's not that complicated, is it? I'm willing to give some more benefit of the doubt, but at some point if we don't see progressive progress, the green party will get another influx of annoyed voters who are saying, "Never again," again.